How to Delete Google My Activity and Set Auto-Delete

To remove everything shown in Google My Activity, sign in at myactivity.google.com, select Delete, choose All time, and confirm with Next and Delete. You can instead delete one item or combine date and product filters, as documented in Google Account Help.

This account-level cleanup does not necessarily erase pages recorded by Chrome or another browser. Google Search Help warns that a browser may continue to retain history after activity is deleted from My Activity, so check and clear the relevant browser profile separately when necessary.

Choose the correct deletion scope

Before deleting anything, verify which Google Account is active and decide whether you need an all-time reset, a limited date range, one product, or an individual entry. Search history cannot be recovered after it is erased, according to Google’s deletion guidance.

Use All time only when you intend to remove every activity category selected on the confirmation screen. A filtered deletion is the more controlled option when, for example, you want to remove Search activity from a particular period while retaining records from other dates or products.

My Activity is not a complete inventory of every record connected to a Google Account. Google’s account instructions explain that some information is managed elsewhere; enabled Timeline data, for example, is stored in Maps Timeline.

Delete all My Activity on a computer

The direct desktop route begins at the My Activity dashboard, not on Chrome’s History page:

Open myactivity.google.com and sign in.
Confirm that the profile shown is the account you intend to clean.
At the top of the activity feed, click Delete.
Choose All time.
Review the activity or products included, then click Next.
Click Delete to confirm.

The official computer sequence is Delete → All time → Next → Delete, as specified by Google Account Help. The first Delete control opens the scope selection; the final confirmation performs the removal.

Review the product list rather than assuming that “all time” means every kind of data Google holds. The time range describes the period covered by the selected operation, while the confirmation screen shows which activity is included.

Delete selected dates, products, or items

For a narrower cleanup, scroll to the activity feed and use its calendar and search controls. Google’s filter instructions confirm that date and product filters can be applied together and that some Google products do not save activity in My Activity.

Select the calendar control and choose a preset period or enter start and end dates.
Select the search control and choose the products to include.
Review the filtered results and active account.
Choose Delete Results to remove the entire result set, or use the delete control beside a single item.

These labels and the combined-filter behavior are documented in Google’s activity-deletion procedure. If an expected record is missing, open Other activity or use the relevant product’s controls instead of treating its absence as proof that it was deleted.

Search history also has shortcuts for all-time deletion, a custom range, one day, or one search. Those options apply specifically to Search history saved in the Google Account rather than automatically covering every activity category or the browser’s own visited-page list.

Delete My Activity on Android

Android route through Google Account Data & privacy settings to delete all saved My Activity.

The Android browser route uses the same core sequence as desktop. Open myactivity.google.com, tap Delete above the activity, choose All time, and then tap Next and Delete, following Google’s Android instructions.

For selected activity, scroll to the feed and use the calendar and search controls to filter by date and product. You can then delete all matching results or remove individual entries.

Android also provides a route to the account’s retention controls: open Settings → Google → your name → Manage your Google Account → Data & privacy, then scroll to History settings. Google’s mobile procedure also lists myaccount.google.com as an alternative, which is useful if a device maker presents the Settings app differently.

Set Web & App Activity to auto-delete

Auto-delete establishes a rolling retention window; it does not immediately erase all existing activity. For Search history governed by Web & App Activity, Google offers retention choices of 3 months, 18 months, or 36 months, according to Google’s auto-delete instructions.

Open your Google Account and select Data & privacy.
Under History settings, select Web & App Activity.
Select the text showing whether Auto-delete is on or off.
Choose Auto-delete activity older than.
Select 3 months, 18 months, or 36 months.
Select Next, review the affected activity, and confirm.

A Tom’s Guide walkthrough published May 3, 2026 independently shows the same three retention choices and a separate Chrome-history step. Its instructions focus on Google Search history, while Google Account Help covers the broader My Activity controls.

Choose the shortest period if minimizing the retained window is the priority. Choose a longer period if recent-history lookup and personalization are more valuable to you. Auto-delete does not stop new eligible activity from being saved: it remains until it becomes older than the selected period.

Interface wording may vary while Google updates Search privacy settings. Google Search Help’s interface notice directs users to their Google Account or current Search-service apps when the displayed labels do not match the documented route.

Understand what each history control covers

Several different records are commonly described as “history,” but one deletion control does not necessarily clear them all:

My Activity: displays and manages eligible activity saved to the signed-in Google Account across supported products.
Web & App Activity: determines whether qualifying activity, including signed-in Search history, is saved and provides an auto-delete setting.
Chrome browsing history: records visited addresses and related browser entries; it is managed through Chrome’s browsing-data controls.
YouTube History: manages watched videos and YouTube searches through its own History setting.
Maps Timeline and Other activity: provide separate destinations for records that may not appear in the main My Activity feed.

The practical rule is to begin with the record you want removed. If it appears in My Activity, use its item, filter, or all-time deletion controls. If it remains only in a browser’s History page or a product-specific history manager, use that separate control.

Google’s explanation of activity deletion says removal begins by taking activity out of view, after which it may no longer be used to personalize the Google experience. Deletion from storage systems follows, while certain data may be retained for limited business or legal purposes.

Clear Chrome browsing history separately

Google My Activity cleared while Chrome browsing history remains for separate deletion.

Chrome’s browsing data is a distinct layer. Google’s desktop Chrome instructions say that deleting browsing history removes visited addresses from the History page, shortcuts to those pages from the New Tab page, and address-bar predictions for those sites.

On a computer, open Chrome, select the menu in the upper-right corner, and choose Delete browsing data. Select the intended time range, choose the types of information to remove, and click Delete data.

On Android, open Chrome, tap the menu to the right of the address bar, and choose Delete browsing data. Select a duration and tap Delete data; Google’s Android Chrome guide says the default duration is 15 minutes, so change it if you need to clear a longer period. Use More options to select specific data types.

Do not select cookies, cached files, passwords, autofill entries, or site settings merely because they appear in the same dialog. Those categories have consequences beyond removing the list of visited pages. Choose only the data required for your cleanup.

If you use multiple Chrome profiles, other browsers, or devices with independently stored history, inspect each relevant location. A clean My Activity page confirms the account-level result; it does not prove that every local or synchronized browser record has been removed.

Stop future saving when deletion is not enough

Manual deletion removes selected existing activity, and auto-delete removes eligible records after they age past a chosen period. Turning a History setting off changes what is saved going forward.

Open Google Account → Data & privacy → History settings → Web & App Activity, select Turn off, and choose either Turn off or Turn off and delete activity. Google distinguishes the two actions, so turning off the setting alone should not be treated as deletion of older records.

Private browsing is not a universal substitute for these account controls. Google’s private-browsing warning says search activity may still be stored in your Google Account if you sign in from a private browser window. Check the active account and its History settings directly.

Verify the result

After the confirmation screen closes, check each layer that mattered to your goal:

Reload myactivity.google.com and confirm that the intended items, products, or dates no longer appear.
Verify that you cleaned the correct Google Account.
Open Data & privacy → History settings and confirm the displayed auto-delete period or off status.
Inspect Other activity, YouTube History, or Maps Timeline if those records were part of the cleanup.
Open Chrome History separately and clear the required time range if visited pages remain.
Repeat the browser check in other profiles, browsers, or devices that retain their own records.

If deleted My Activity entries still appear on another device, reconnect that device and refresh it. Google’s troubleshooting steps explain that an offline device may continue showing items until it reconnects; clearing cache and cookies is the next documented display fix.

Use a one-time deletion for a past cleanup, auto-delete for rolling retention, or turn off the relevant History setting when future eligible activity should not be saved. Treat browser history as a separate final check rather than evidence that the account-level deletion failed.

How to Delete Google My Activity—and Set It to Auto-Delete